the Iranian recovered it? or it is a fake?
These are
SOME of the questions you must ask...
- So what if there are damages? If anything, signs of damages can present a more credible
INITIAL positive impression of a claim. In mishaps, investigators usually home in on the damaged areas/components because they hold the clues for the true cause of the mishap.
- Although the flying wing design is a natural lifting body design, less prone to 'out of control' conditions than 'conventional' design, and tends to enter 'glide' mode when controls are relaxed, the U-2 that was shot down over Soviet territory still had considerable physical damages from the hard landing. The wreckage contains many large sections that was clearly recognizable by the US as 'U-2' related.
Aerospaceweb.org | Ask Us - Gary Powers and the U-2
Surviving wreckage looked remarkably intact,...
Particularly the 4th photo from top.
For this remarkably intact body displayed by the Iranians, we can reasonably conclude one main thing: That a slight pitch-up maneuver was performed by the aircraft as common by any aircraft while performing a landing.
RQ-4 Global Hawk Crash At China Lake - YouTube
So either the drone was programmed to locate an airfield and land itself according to how aircrafts would land themselves under human control, or that it is true that Iran did managed to literally assume authority and control of the drone and landed it. Like it or not, the former speculation is the most credible, less believable is if Iran managed to have a human agent in the American drone program in Nevada, and least plausible is that Iran managed to crack a triple-DES encrypted real time two-way airborne communication link.
- If Iran did managed to assume authority and control of the drone and land it, either in a safe 'wheels down' manner or even in a rough 'belly landing' glide manner, then why bother to hide the underside with all those propaganda banners? Let everyone see close-ups of the landing gears. Surely someone from the American side would recognize the components and broadcast their part IDs on the Internet. Iran cannot be that stupid not to recognize the propaganda value of absolutely certain exposure of identification. If it was a rough 'belly landing' approach and even if the drone tumbled a bit, so what? If the Soviets had no problems displaying Powers' U-2 in all of its pieces, why should Iran?
Here are ROCAF U-2s on display in mainland China...
Those U-2s are intact but certainly nowhere as undamaged as this drone.